With two-thirds of its trio of junior stars sidelined with injuries, the remaining Division I prospect from that group stepped up and delivered a tour de force performance Monday night for the Elmira girls basketball team.

Junior forward Zaria DeMember-Shazer notched a triple-double, putting up 18 points, 14 rebounds and 13 blocked shots, to lead the Express to a 42-30 victory over Horseheads at Elmira High School.

Elmira improved to 3-1 without junior point guard Kiara Fisher, who will miss the entire season with a shoulder injury. She is scheduled to have surgery on Tuesday.

Morgan Gentile, another high-scoring Elmira junior, is out with a leg injury suffered Thursday against Corning. Express head coach Jake Dailey said he isn't sure when she will return.

Elmira was also missing key eighth-grader Jalea Abrams. She is day-to-day with a sprained ankle, Dailey said.

"We understand that other teams aren’t going to feel bad for us, so we couldn’t feel bad for ourselves," DeMember-Shazer said of the injuries. "They weren’t going to take it easy, so we couldn’t take it easy on ourselves.

"We had to push each other in practice even more because no one was going to give us a leg up just because we didn’t have Kiara or Morgan anymore. They’re going to play us the same way."

Horseheads' Jillian Casey led the Blue Raiders (3-3) with 14 points. Horseheads made only eight shots from the field and was held to 18 points in the final three quarters after building a 12-8 advantage. Funnily enough, Horseheads was nearly perfect at the foul line, hitting 12 of 13 tries.

"They’re taking away Jill a little bit, but other girls have to score," Horseheads coach Andy Scott said. "We saw that a little bit in games one and two, then the last couple of games we’ve had good balance. But that defensive pressure is obviously very good that they brought. That’s the way they play."

Five other things you need to know from this game:

DeMember-Shazer dominated

DeMember-Shazer, an eighth-team Class AA all-state pick last season, has delivered big-time performances in the past, but even in those games Fisher has generally been the focal point of what Elmira did offensively. With Fisher and Gentile watching from the bench Monday, the Express knew where it wanted to go with the ball.

"She’s great," Dailey said of the 6-foot DeMember-Shazer. "Our game plan tonight was to feed her, give her the ball as many times as we could, then try to react off of what they do with her. We made a few mistakes. We fed her a little bit too much. We forced it a little bit, but she’s a stud. She’s a DI for real and when she plays like that we’re pretty good."

DeMember-Shazer had 10 points in the first half to help Elmira lead 19-15 at the intermission. She closed with six points in the final quarter, helping the Express pull away late after Horseheads got within 29-25.

"It’s really easy to work hard and have fun with this team because everyone knows their role and we all know what to do to make each other look better," DeMember-Shazer said. "They were definitely feeding me. It was a lot of help from them. I didn’t do that all on my own."

A different mindset

Fisher's unmatched ball-handling and court vision help to create numerous fast-break chances and layups for the Express. With her gone, Elmira has to plot a different course to score points.

"Kiara and Morgan, they’re a lot of instant offense," DeMember-Shazer said. "So now we actually have to go through our plays and take our time and make sure we’re getting good shots. We don’t get as many when we’re not pushing the floor like we usually do."

That said, Dailey said Elmira is not changing its focus on trying to create turnovers that lead to transition points.

"We thought about that for about five minutes, then we just decided these kids are used to it," Dailey said. "It’s kind of in our identity, it’s in our blood that we’re going to pressure the ball on defense, we’re going to pressure them on offense.

"We really haven’t changed anything yet. That’s not to say we don’t change in the future, but we like what we do, we like how our kids come up and step up."

"Defense is where we’re going to win," Dailey said. "We’re going to win playing in your face, aggressive. We want to pressure the ball the whole game from start to finish. Between Caylee and Sarah Coon we did that."

That started with trying to limit Casey, who a week earlier nailed nine 3-pointers and scored 38 points in an 86-37 win over Johnson City, part of a team-record 16 3-pointers for the Blue Raiders.

"Everyone was ready," DeMember-Shazer said. "Since we push each other in practice, everyone was prepared to guard people, like Jill. She’s a hard matchup, so I think a lot of people stepped up and we worked hard to make it work."

While Dailey understandably had high praise for DeMember-Shazer, he wasn't stingy with the accolades Monday.

"Sarah Coon, Zhane Holomes and Parker Moss stepped into big roles tonight and they played great," Dailey said. "Sarah Coon was phenomenal tonight on defense when we needed her. When Caylee went out early, a little gassed and a little winded, to come in and play defense like that was phenomenal for us."

Not enough offense for Raiders

Scott said he couldn't have asked for a better effort from his team defensively, especially holding Elmira to 42 points in its own gym.

"That should be enough to win the ballgame," he said. "Today it was not enough to win the ballgame. Luckily it’s in December right now. We’ve got some work to do. We’ve got a lot of work to do. But at least we go back and look at the film, learn from it and get better."

Horseheads is also playing short-handed. Kendal Cook and Skyler Roberts are both out for the season with injuries. The Raiders are also missing Jenna Granger, whom Scott said is expected back in early January.

"We’re down some kids. They're down some big-time kids too, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter who’s on the court, you’ve got to be able to score the basketball," Scott said.

Playing for a cause

The teams are combining to raise money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) through T-shirt sales and donations during their two regular-season games against each other. The fundraiser will continue Jan. 24 when they meet at Horseheads Middle School. Coaches and players from both the JV and varsity teams wore "Hoop for the Cure" T-shirts during Monday's game.

Up next

Horseheads hosts Ithaca at 7:45 p.m. Thursday. Elmira is off until the opening night of the Josh Palmer Fund/Elmira Holiday Inn Classic on Dec. 27, when it meets Corning at 7:45.